


Cold

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alien Biology, F/M, Gallifreyan, Hypothermia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: Rose and the Doctor are stranded in a snow storm, trying to keep each other warm.





	Cold

‘It’s okay, Rose, come here.’

They were huddled just inside a shallow cave beneath an overhang of ice, with no chance of making it back to the TARDIS until the blinding snow storm outside subsided.

The Doctor took off his jacket and held her against himself. It was like touching a radiator, or a small animal that had been lying in the sun. Rose almost let go of him in surprise, but he held her tightly, almost desperately. She could feel his heartbeats thrumming like a hummingbird’s. 

‘Are you alright? I thought you said your internal body temperature was 16 degrees Celsius?’ 

‘Normally, yes. But I’ve got a fair amount of control over it. Survival mechanism. Voluntarily induced, yes. But it is technically a fever.’

‘What’s it at right now?’

‘40, 42 degrees C… Something like that.’

‘Does that hurt you?’

‘Uses a tonne of energy. I’ll be pretty exhausted. Symbiotic microbes aren’t going to thank me either.’

‘Your hearts are beating like mad.’

‘You said you were freezing.’

‘I’m not that freezing.’

‘Hypothermia. Shhh.’

‘Doesn’t this mean you’re losing heat faster?’

‘Evolutionary, its function is really to be able to warm up quickly after being exposed to a cold environment. Or to protect infants or the ill-’

‘Or humans.’

‘Or humans. Last time I did this was in Norway, first century BC. It was spring.’ The Doctor smiled.

Rose had stopped shivering. ‘Is it just me warming up, or is your temperature dropping?’

‘Not as young as I used to be.’

‘It’s also not spring.’ 

‘Thanks. If my skin temperature drops below normal before we’re able to get out of here I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help.’

‘But I can help you.’ 

‘No. You need to focus on keeping yourself warm. I can withstand much colder environments.’

‘Not without sustaining harm.’

‘Don’t worry about me.’ 

‘I’m not letting go.’

‘Put my coat on, at least.’

Rose felt the Doctor’s heart rate slow as his temperature fell. 

‘Normal level of blood flow to our skin is as much a cooling mechanism as anything else- We’re sort of like- A supercomputer…’

'You’re not going to go into one of those coma things, are you?’ Rose shifted the Doctor’s now clammy hands to the back of her neck, where arteries warmed the surface.

'For getting a bit cold? Nah. 'Course not.’

But the Doctor rested his head against her shoulder and closed his eyes. And he didn’t protest when she wrapped his coat around him, and kept holding him. A shivering human and nearly ectothermic alien. Alone in a desert of snow.


End file.
